If you’ve lived around Asian American immigrant households, especially Chinese ones, you’re already familiar with one side effect this has in the kitchen: There’s grease everywhere. It builds up over time, and it seems like no matter how much you clean, you can’t get rid of it. At my parent’s house as I was growing up it seemed like our whole kitchen was coated in it.
Eventually I left my parent’s house and found my way to the west coast. Many years later, when my parents retired, they wanted to move out west to join me. As part of getting my parents set up in a new house in California, I remodeled the kitchen in the house they were going to move into. During this remodel, I got my parents the one appliance they always wished they had when living on the east coast, a high CFM (cubic feet per minute) kitchen exhaust fan, aka range hood.
The typical modern American kitchen uses an integrated microwave oven and range hood, a useful convenience when you’ve got a small kitchen and need to save space. But these are also typically the worst performing range hoods, normally capable of moving between 100 and 300 CFM of air and definitely the worst choice for an Asian American kitchen. Of course the kitchen I was remodeling had an integrated microwave range hood unit, so it was the first thing to go.
Finding a replacement range hood was more difficult, as I did this remodel in 2001. Even today, finding high CFM (around 900 is a good number for a typical Asian American household) range hood is still relatively difficult. You can’t just walk into your local Home Depot or Lowe’s and expect to find a range hood that will fit your needs. These big box stores will carry some professional grade range hoods, but those aren’t exactly designed for an Asian American household either, especially one on a budget.
So where do you find a range hood, that’s high in CFM, good at eliminating grease, and relatively affordable? You could take a trip out to Chinatown (if you’ve got one within driving distance) and visit an appliance store there, or you can do what I did, and go online to ebay. Today you can probably find other online stores that will carry suitable range hoods at decent prices, so definitely shop around if you’re in the market.
I was able to locate on ebay a range hood that not only moved 900 CFM, but included the sought after “grease cups” (designed to catch the excess grease from cooking), something you don’t find on a typical range hood designed for the American market. The one I purchased was made in China of course, and immediately was my parent’s favorite appliance in the kitchen.
As a DIY (Do-It-Yourself) project, replacing a range hood is probably one of the easier projects a homeowner can do. It’s all about making sure you’ve bought the right size range hood in advance, and being willing to work with electrical, as you’ll need to disconnect the old range hood, which may be hardwired into the home. You may also need to re-orient the back of the exhaust fan to match where the vent is in your kitchen (either against the back wall or above the range hood).
So if you’re looking to upgrade your home, and want a project that’s sure to please the Asian American cook in your household, this is one project that will definitely help save the wear and tear on your kitchen.
